Puppet Strings

Chapter Three

Moonlight shone from the window, casting glowing beams onto the floor of the guest bedroom. Over her covers, Alluna's soft white hair glowed in the dim light. Under the covers, she was suffocating.

Her heart pounded, her hands trembled, her whole body shook and she couldn't breathe, couldn't think, couldn't feel anything but the overwhelming dread.

She was living in a hero's house. Heroes that would capture her and trap her and kill her.

"Ungrateful child! I should just hand you to the heroes and see what they'll do to you!"

Alluna clutched her head in her hands, ripping her blanket off her. It was far too hot for a blanket. She slowly sat up, pushing all her emotions down as hard as she could. She stared out the window, focusing on the buildings and trees in the distance. And the tree in front of her.

Alluna slipped off the bed, ignoring the sound of the blanket falling to the ground behind her. She crept toward the window, and stood before it for a few moments, savoring the light of the moon shining on her face. She slipped her fingers under the window frame, and pulled it open. The night air was refreshing; chilly, just enough to cool her down.

Alluna sucked in a deep breath. Her emotions were safely stuffed back inside her, where no one would notice, not even her. The tree branch hung right underneath her windowsill, and leaning outside Alluna noticed other larger branches wrapped around the tree, leading it closer and closer to the ground; the lowest branch was probably a meter and a half away.

This gave Alluna an idea.

Going downstairs to find her shoes would be risky, so Alluna crept to her closet to put on some socks and her cardigan over her light blue nightgown. At the window, she turned around and used her arms to push herself onto the windowsill. She turned around to let her legs dangle outside, to reach the branch outside. Grabbing another branch to keep steady, Alluna slid outside until her butt was sitting on the branch. She stopped to catch her breath.

Alluna always had an adventurous streak. Back at her old apartment, she obviously couldn't sneak out a window — she was living on the twenty-third floor. But once, she had picked the lock on the front door with her mother's hairpin, and made it outside. But the noise and the people were so different, so much louder than the twenty-third floor, that she just sat on the ground and cried, trying her best to rein it in. Her mom found her two hours later. A second and third lock was added the day after.

But Alluna was better now. She'd walked through the city the night of her fall, and she'd stood outside the hospital just yesterday. She was fine; nothing would happen.

"You're a danger to society!"

She was fine.

~~~

"The UA entrance exam?"

It was the morning of the 29th, and the official date of the UA entrance exam, as Alluna had just found out. She didn't know Aizawa was a teacher. She decided that it suited him.

"Would you like to come? You don't have to, of course, but I think it would be a nice experience."

Did she want to go? A room full of wannabe-heroes, how would she handle it? Just being in a room full of people...

"You don't have a quirk, do you?" Alluna's head snapped up to find Aizawa studying her face. He must've thought she was hesitant about coming because she was jealous of their quirks. And she was, just not in the way he assumed.

She sucked in a breath. She did have a quirk. But she didn't want to tell him.

"No, I don't have a quirk." She peeked up at him through her hair.

Aizawa had a gentle expression on his face. "That's okay, kiddo," he said comfortingly. "I'm sure you'll be very successful either way. You're smart for your age."

Under her hair, Alluna grinned mirthfully. I wish I was quirkless. Like Dad. Life would've been...so much easier.

On the outside, she smiled. "Thanks, Aizawa-san."

He grinned and patted her head. "Just Aizawa is fine."

~~~

Alluna had decided to go to the UA entrance exam. She had been feeling good, like nothing could get her down. Now, she was starting to regret that decision. She had arrived at the test site, and followed Aizawa up the long winding stairs that led to the observation tower, where they'd be watching the applicants fight. Entering the towers, Alluna's eyes widened. Screens spread throughout the length of the walls, displaying every nick and corner of the different battle stations.

"Who's this, Aizawa?" a voice behind the two asked.

Aizawa and Alluna turned around to see a man made entirely out of cement. His head and body was a rectangular brick of cement. He wore a reddish-brown jumpsuit and gray boots.

Aizawa yawned. "This is the girl I took in. I'm sure Nemuri told you about her."

The man smiled, the corners of his very linear mouth turning up. He faced Alluna. "My name's Ishiyama Ken. You must be Alluna. Nemuri wouldn't stop talking about you."

Alluna fiddled with her scarf, unsure of what to say.

Suddenly, Kayama rushed in. "Hizashi's almost done. The children are going to their assigned battle stations."

Aizawa had explained to Alluna what the entrance exam would be like, and Alluna was intrigued to see how the students would attack.

She sat down on a chair between Aizawa and Kayama, and turned to face the large screens across the width of the room.

During the exam, Alluna noted some more noticeable students, such as a boy with an explosion quirk, who was by far getting the most attack points. Some others that caught her eye were a red-haired boy with a hardening quirk, a brown haired girl with an anti-gravity quirk, and a pale-skinned girl who had spiky green vines for hair.

However, there was one boy who amazed her, and all of the other teachers as well. A green haired boy who seemed to have some sort of strength-enhancing quirk. When the huge zero-point robot was bearing down on the anti-gravity girl who was pinned under a piece of gravel, he was the only one to help. He jumped up impossibly high, and destroyed the giant with a single blow. This greatly impressed Alluna, as well as the other teachers, who gave him sixty rescue points. However, he also destroyed his arm in the process. Alluna wondered if that would happen every time he used his quirk. It seemed almost like he had just developed it, or he very rarely used it, like herself.

Watching the entrance exam made Alluna think about how she'd do if she had partaken. She shook the thoughts out of her mind. According to what she had told Aizawa, she had no quirk now. But what if..?

No. No hero school would accept a villain's quirk.

~~~

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